Comments on: My Picks for Top Tweets: 12 August 2017

By: Heather Hastie

Heather Hastie — Sun, 13 Aug 2017 00:30:18 +0000

In reply to nwalsh. I mean that btw, it really is interesting. I've been getting misinterpreted a lot in the real world today, so I'm just making sure you don't think I'm being sarcastic or anything.

By: Heather Hastie

Heather Hastie — Sun, 13 Aug 2017 00:28:44 +0000

In reply to nwalsh. Interesting!

By: nwalsh

nwalsh — Sun, 13 Aug 2017 00:26:31 +0000

The same situation was evident in Canada from 2005 until recently Americans were coming to Canada to be married.

By: Heather Hastie

Heather Hastie — Sat, 12 Aug 2017 23:54:06 +0000

In reply to Mark R..

Yes – a same-sex marriage in NZ is legal in Aussie, though there may be some restrictions that other couples don’t face. There’s a close relationship in multiple areas between NZ and Aus.

By: rickflick

rickflick — Sat, 12 Aug 2017 22:09:36 +0000

In reply to Steven in Tokyo. Thanks for filling in some details. I do not intend to learn Japanese, but it's interesting to know a bit about how it works.

By: Mark R.

Mark R. — Sat, 12 Aug 2017 19:05:04 +0000

I once found an octopus in a tide pool on California’s Pacific coast…I put it in a bucket and it turned bright red like the one in the tweet. After observing it for a few minutes and showing it off I put it back.

Tim Minchin is a treasure. And I had no idea same sex marriage was illegal in Australia. So if a gay couple gets married in New Zealand, does Australia recognize the marriage as legal?

Alex Jones: only in America, land of the loons. (Though I know his ilk can be found anywhere; we’re just the best at creating them.)

“Trump was a fucking oracle.” I wonder if anyone ever re-tweets this type of ironic tweet back to Trump.

Thanks for the 8th day of memorable tweets!

By: Lee Knuth

Lee Knuth — Sat, 12 Aug 2017 16:44:52 +0000

Especially liked the one from Aunt Crabbie. Perfect!@

By: Heather Hastie

Heather Hastie — Sat, 12 Aug 2017 14:18:50 +0000

In reply to Steven in Tokyo. Thanks! I got this one. The other one never arrived this end, so I can only imagine where ut went. It sounds like it would be less difficult than I expected. It's so different to what I'm used to I imagine I'd still find it tough though!

By: Steven in Tokyo

Steven in Tokyo — Sat, 12 Aug 2017 13:56:10 +0000

(This is to replace a comment that appears to have disappeared into the ether.)
Heather, I think that Japanese, with its fairly simple sound world, is a lot easier to learn now than it used to be, with the development of word-processing software. The two syllabaries—one for ‘indigenous’ Japanese words and the other for words derived from foreign languages—are not so hard, but what used to be so difficult was learning how to read and write all of the difficult vocabulary, which is written with combinations of Chinese (or Sino-Japanese) characters. Now all you need to be able to do is recognise the word, since the computer supplies you with all the different ways of writing homonyms.
To give an example, kousei can be written in about 30 different ways, each with different meanings, although perhaps only about half of them are common. To put a word pronounced kousei into a text, you just type in those six letters, and then choose from the alternatives the computer gives you. If the first one that comes up is the wrong one, you hit the space bar, until the one you want appears, which you then select by hitting return. It’s simpler than it sounds.
I work in the field of Japanese music history, which has a lot of jargon, but the computer has learnt which words I favour, and gives me them to me quickly. I also write more general texts, and administrative stuff as well, but the computer seems to learn fairly quickly!
I will leave it there, just in case this disappears into the ether as well …

By: Steven in Tokyo

Steven in Tokyo — Sat, 12 Aug 2017 13:42:56 +0000

In reply to Heather Hastie.

I’d recommend trying it, Heather. It’s much easier to learn how to write Japanese now, because all you have to do with Japanese language software is to be able to recognise the word that you are after.
Perhaps I should explain a little. There are two syllabaries, one for Japanese words, inflections, and particles, and the other for words derived from foreign languages, like チョコレート chokoreeto for chocolate. Then there are the Chinese, or SIno-Japanese, characters, of which you need to know probably more than 2000. A lot of vocabulary is made up of combinations of two or more characters, and there are lots of homophones, words with the same pronunciation but with different meanings and written with different characters. Kousei (or kōsei), for instance, can take up to about 30 different forms, though perhaps only half of those are common. When you want to put one of them into your text, you just type kousei, and the word-processing software gives you a choice of words with that sound, from which you select the one you want. If the first one that comes up is not the one you want, you just hit the space bar until the one you want appears, and you hit return when you have the one you want.
I work in Japanese music history, and use a fairly limited if specialized vocabulary in my specialist writing, but as a university professor I also have to write more general texts, as well as administrative things. My computer is very used to me, however, and usually gives me the word I want as the first alternative.